1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data conversion rule switching device for switching to a data conversion rule suitable for control of respective target devices, so that a plurality of target devices connected to respective data communication ports (data communication paths) can be controlled with a single control device while changing the target device, a method of switching data conversion rules, and a program for the switching. More specifically, the invention relates to a data conversion rule switching device, method of switching data conversing rules, and program for realizing an easy switching of data conversion rules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a single control device which controls a plurality of target devices has been known. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H09-319476 discloses an invention that a plurality of personal computers (corresponding to the target devices) are respectively connected via a connecting cable to a control device (i.e., so-called “remote controller”) comprised of a keyboard, a mouse and, a display, and one personal computer to be controlled with the control device can be selected.
The control device operates such that when a control such as a keyboard and a mouse is operated, the control device sends operation data generated in response to operation of the control only to a connection cable that provides connection with the selected personal computer. Thus, a user can control each of the personal computers through use of a single control device while switching the target device between the plurality of personal computers connected to the control device, wherein the control includes, for example, file transfer between the respective personal computers and activation/control of a software program stored in each of the personal computers.
The operation data for control of personal computer is in a data format common to the respective personal computers. Accordingly, in this case, even when a personal computer to be controlled is switched from one to another, the operation data generated in response to the operation of the control does not need to be converted into a data format suitable for control of the selected target device, and therefore switching between a plurality of data conversion rules (referred to also as “protocols” in this specification) is not performed.
Furthermore, an example of a single control device capable of controlling a plurality of target devices is, for instance, configured so that various different types of mixers can be controlled through use of the single control device by connecting the mixers (including not only a mixing device comprised of a dedicated hardware but a software program or the like stored in a personal computer for realizing functions of a mixer) to the single control device while changing from one to another.
In such an example, the mixer is controlled by operation data generated in response to operation of controls of the control device and therefore a data conversion rule (protocol) needs to be switched depending on what type of mixer is connected to the control device. For this reason, conventionally, a data conversion rule corresponding to the type of a mixer connected to the control device is previously selected from among data conversion rules previously prepared for mixers of different types and assigned to the control device, and then, the operation data is converted in accordance with the assigned data conversion rule so that the mixer connected to the control device can be controlled.
As described above, when a single control device is configured to control a plurality of target devices, the data conversion rule (protocol) needs to be switched to one suitable for use in each of the target devices in order to allow the control device to control different types of target devices. Since the conventional control device is configured to use only one type of data conversion rule, a user had to elaborately switch from one data conversion rule to another data conversion rule suitable for a newly selected target device by himself/herself, each time when a target device is changed from one to another. As described above, it was so problematic, troublesome and time-consuming for a user to perform an additional operation to switch a data conversion rule from one to another whenever a type of target device to be controlled is changed from one to another.